Internet Fax Service vs. Fax Modem: Which is better?

Q: What is the difference between using an Internet fax service rather than a faxing modem?

A: First, we should discuss what each of these alternative faxing options is. A fax modem is a small USB device that you can plug into your computer and use to send faxes over a dial-up Internet connection. These devices can be found for as cheap as $20. An Internet fax service allows you to have a dedicated fax number through which you can send and receive faxes with any type of Internet. These online-based services are affordable and flexible, and start around $5/month.

While a one-time fee for the USB fax modem may initially seem more attractive, there are a couple of reasons why Internet fax services are not only a better value, but are more useful in general.

- You need a dial-up connection to use the fax modem. Dial-up Internet connections are a rare breed, and for good reason. They are slower, pricier and generally less flexible. Most people use broadband, DSL or cable, not dial-up. Also, Mac users with OSX Lion and Mountain Lion are out of luck if they want to use Apple's faxing modem, since these operating systems aren't compatible with the device.

-With Internet fax, you don't have to use your computer to fax — you can do it from your smartphone too! When you have an Internet fax account, you can fax from anywhere with an Internet connection.

If you want to learn more about Internet fax, visit our comparison chart to compare services side-by-side.

Leave a Reply

Before you post, please prove you are a human being.

Wait! The answer you gave wasn't the one we were looking for. Try another.

What is 7 times 5?

About Author

Polina Polishchuk

Polina is a NextAdvisor editor who covers credit report monitoring services, Internet fax, email marketing services and online diet programs, among other consumer and business services. She is a UC Berkeley graduate who currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and previously wrote for CNET. When she's not tinkering with online services, she's going to shows, rock climbing or eating sushi.

Advertiser Disclosure: NextAdvisor.com is a consumer information site that offers free, independent reviews and ratings of online services. We receive advertising revenue from most but not all of the companies whose products and services we review. For credit cards, we review cards from all of the top 10 US issuers by purchase volume (according to Issue 1035 of The Nilson Report, Feb 2014) excluding issuers that require additional accounts to be a cardholder and private label issuers. We may also review cards from other issuers in select cases. We do not review all products in a given category. We are independently owned and operated and all opinions expressed on this site are our own.